Donald Trump likes to talk, and many of his supporters love that he lacks anything resembling a filter. Trump says what he means and means what he says. Admittedly, that was a refreshing change for many back in 2016 during his first campaign — particularly in contrast to Hillary Clinton’s painfully contrived, meaningless, focus group-tested rhetoric.
Sadly, what was once a tremendous asset for Trump has become his biggest liability He often says things that are… problematic at best. Sometimes, he just can’t help himself, like when he was recorded bragging to an author about a classified military plan post-presidency.
But I digress. On Wednesday, Trump took to Truth Social and proudly highlighted the fact that he is the only living president who does not have ancestors who were slaveholders.
“‘President Joe Biden and every living President-except Donald Trump — are direct descendants of slaveholders: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and — through his white mother’s side — Barack Obama…’ Reuters,” Trump posted. “I hope that every African American in our Country is reading this right now. REMEMBER!”
Trump was referencing a Reuters piece that found that “Among America’s political elite … 5 Living Presidents, 2 Supreme Court Justices, 11 Governors & 100 Legislators … descend from ancestors who enslaved Black people.”
What does this factoid really have to do with anything? What does it matter? What exactly does it reflect upon any of these political elites? Nothing, of course. Absolutely nothing.
Reuters went out of its way to craft a narrative insinuating that the impact of slavery still reverberates today because it influenced the lives of numerous prominent figures in our government. How many of these people even know about their slaveholding ancestors? Elizabeth Warren probably knows more about her fake Native American heritage than her real slave-holding ancestors. Frankly, I’m more concerned with the policies she promotes.
It’s truly remarkable how preposterous this narrative is, yet Trump, in his infinite wisdom, felt compelled to boast about not having a slaveholding ancestor.
According to The Daily Caller, Trump’s family “arrived in the U.S. years after slavery had been abolished in 1865. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland in Nov. 1929,” while his paternal grandfather Fredrick Trump “arrived from the Bavarian city of Kallstadt between the late 1800s and early 1900s.”
Now let’s make something very clear: Donald Trump’s presidency was beneficial for black Americans. While black Americans struggled to regain employment under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Trump’s presidency lifted everyone up. Does that have anything to do with Obama and Biden having slaveholding ancestors? My disdain for Obama and Biden is a matter of public record, but even I wouldn’t go so far as to say that there’s any connection between the sins of someone’s ancestors and their own sins. This attitude is what drives the movement for reparations in the United States.
Related: Reparations: the Radical Left’s White Whale
Consequently, Trump’s statement becomes disconcerting as it lends support to the ridiculous notion that the actions of distant ancestors hold relevance today, thereby legitimizing the position of proponents of slavery reparations.
